James J. Zogby illustrated the ignorance of Americans in his book tour lecture for his book, “Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us and Why it Matters.”

He began by presenting startling statistics that illustrated the lack of knowledge Americans have on Arabs and the Middle East and why it matters.

“Less that 1 percent of high school kids study Arabic. Our education is so low that we do not even have working knowledge of other regions of the world,” Zogby said.

Hannah Van Schaik, freshman in music, was one of the many in the crowd that came to see Zogby speak.

“I think it’s important that we learn about the Middle East because I, like so many other people, know so little about that part of the world,” Van Schaik said.

Zogby is the founder and president of the Arab American Institute and also co-founded other organizations such as the Palestine Human Rights Campaign and Save Lebanon. His acts have been in efforts to bridge the gap between America and the Arab world.

“The Middle East has become increasingly more important in our world, and we don’t even know about it,” Zogby said. “People think ‘Hey I’ll go to Lebanon, sit at a bar with people who speak English, and I’ll know the people.’ That is not how you learn [about] the people and their country. You need to know them and all the different walks they come from.”

Zogby said the current generation is what will conquer the stereotypes, hostility, and hatred between groups.

“Patriotism in my day was strapping on your suit and fighting for your country,” Zogby said. “Patriotism in your day is recycling, finding ways to have cleaner cars, you guys care more about the world. You are global citizens and are generally more tolerant. Your generation is leading, and we are following”.

Polling has become an essential part to making changes in the way countries deal with international relations and helps in figuring out how people perceive the issues at hand.

“Polling … lets us hear what’s important to the people of the area. In this case, the Middle East,” Zogby said. “We have more at risk with the Middle East than any other part of the world, yet we know so little about them.”

“When we ask Americans why Arabs dislike us, 60 percent of them say because they hate our values. Yet, when we ask Arabs what they think of American values, 85 percent of them say they love them.”

Zogby made an interesting point that American history is reflected in the way Americans see the world and that that lense has shifted, blocking a lot of things from Americans’ vision.

“We could get away with our ignorance, except now we are at war; economically, foreign arrangements, our deep investment,” Zogby said. “Our knowledge is crticial, but we are so ill equipped to fight this battle.”

The stereotpyes Americans have of Arabs is shattering to the reality. When an Arab character is portrayed strapping a bomb to themselves and walking into a market, that becomes the reality to outsiders. But that is only one representation and unfortunately is the only one that has stuck with Americans.

“If the only Arab you see on television is a terrorist, then you don’t see the others,” Zogby said. “Another poll we took was what their concerns were, what they cared about. You know the answers we got? Work, job security, family, children, education, economy. Sound like us? That’s because there is little difference in what we hold dear to us.”

The commonalities amongst humans can break down any cultural boarder that has been built over the years. The current generation has the most hope and potential to tear down these walls and educate ourselves on why these issues matter.

“Not knowing is one thing, but not knowing and thinking you know is something else, and even more dangerous,” Zogby said. “The Arab world is furious with us, but we don’t care enough to figure out what we need to change.”

“People say that Egypt was so violent, and it was a mess. Tahir Square was Woodstock. Poetry, music, tents, chants, unity; it was not an angry crowd, but that’s not the story we saw. We saw a war break out, but it was a breakthrough.”

The current generation has the ideas, potential and strength to break down the stereotypes and blemished history between the American and Arab worlds and should utilize them, Zogby said.

Mackenzie Philipp, freshman in open option, finds the potential for her generation particularly important.

“I think it’s cool that there is a lot of hope for our generation, and it’s inspiring to see his confidence in our ability to make changes in our mentality and action to the middle east and arab world,” Philipp said.

Zogby suggests that this possibility is not far from reality at all, nor should we delay in the education and outreach to solve this critical issue.